Hang on, what year is it? We seem to be back to Russia fearmongering again.

Hillary Clinton is beating the drum of public alarm over Donald Trump’s kind words about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Do you remember that 2012 debate between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney?

After Romney spoke seriously about the growing threats to the United States from Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin, Obama delivered the following withering comeback that became one of the most potent zingers in American political history: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.”

That won him a lot of “oohs” and “ahhs” from the “Daily Show” crowd but more importantly it was indicative of the Obama team’s canny realization that most Americans voters do not naturally focus on foreign policy and even less on foreign leaders unless they are really living in fear of them as opposed to mild disdain or fuzzy recognition of their names in the first place. Moreover, most American voters simply do want to worry about foreign countries or any possible threats from them. In that way, Obama’s zinger served the dual role of reassuring the voters and belittling an opponent simultaneously. You just don’t get many opportunities to score those kinds of points in any election.

Just over two weeks later, President Obama was re-elected to his second term.

2012 wasn’t that long ago. Have we forgotten that turn of events already?

Clinton seems to think the American people are concerned enough about Putin to really be swayed by her renewed public alarm over Donald Trump’s kind words about the Russian leader. Her doomsday-like words decrying Trump’s Putin praise during her exceedingly brief news conference Thursday was about as dark a tone we’ve heard from either candidate in this election so far. For a campaign that’s made so much hay by criticizing the “dark” tone of Trump’s campaign, this is an inexcusable mistake.